1. |
Choreography
03:59
|
|||
|
We are going to have to learn all over again
How to move through spaces and through times
Like toddlers testing gravity and consequence
Discovering old reasons determining new rhymes
If you’re rooting for the darkness
And can’t find yourself or anyone
Remember and retrace your steps
And consider what you have done
Nobody asked us to dance but here we stand
with these melodies mocking means of attention
and these rhythms sneakily ratcheting up tension
until we wish we could plead incomprehension
|
||||
2. |
City
04:48
|
|||
|
There’s a city in my head
partly living partly dead
fades in and out of view
when I need it to
I came here more
than twenty years ago
when I needed to go
somewhere else
where I could belong to
others of my kind
others who were not blind
others who would see me for me
There’s a city in my head
sometimes black and white
Sometimes red
other times it toggles
between the two
shifts in and out of view
I hear it when I want
it knows how to haunt
it knows how to hide
somewhere deep inside
Comes out of me
at the strangest of times
chilliest of climes
There’s a city of the dead
partly inside my head
partly inside yours
buildings windows doors
rows and streets and signs
shady trees soft hills steady inclines
No one ever gets hit
by a car or a truck or a bus
It’s a place where we’re safe
I mean, all of us
|
||||
3. |
County
05:36
|
|||
|
I saw the fire at a distance
Thin little line on the horizon
On a path of least resistance
Headed our way how unsurprising
Silhouette of a cat in the dark against the blinds
Shadow on a far wall slips from ledge to edge
It’s too hot to sleep and I’m sore from the hike
I knew you would drag me uphill both ways
I’d priced it into transit into the transaction
You don’t feel sad you feel focused and unafraid
It’s how you take your mind off a world unmade
Your frequent flyer feelings never fit your pockets
The county never sent word on refinery smoke
Maybe they were crowning a cheap unleaded pope
I saw the fire at a distance
Thin little line on the horizon
On a path of least resistance
Headed our way how unsurprising
I don’t want you to hold what we know
must burn against yourself against me now
I’ll do my best to be direct as it’s what no one
expects and to endure someway somehow
I never wanted what was endless more or less
Only what would last as present became the past
I only ever wanted a new feeling unlike all the rest
Only what will always last even if it goes by too fast
|
||||
4. |
December
03:19
|
|||
|
And you know that it’s December
You can feel the days departing
Starting to acknowledge the ending year
At least autumn was a comfort
Falling leaves and waning daylight
Sudden darknesses without favor or fear
You fall back on understanding
you still have time for planning
journals to plan journeys to begin at once
And you tune out the sensation
of other holidays and celebrations
markers as arbitrary and artificial as a month
You try hard not to remember
Every file branch and error
that in terror you left open hoping for some repair
Days and weeks evaporated
in minor love and major hatred
as if energies were fated to dissipate into thin air
Others are less likely to help than you expect
Stuck in sensations of obligations they protect
Calendars crawling up the backs of their senses
Hypnotized by clocks undecided and defenseless
The end of a year is just the end of the year
not the end of an era, not the end of terror
The end of a year is not the end of fear
but the start of a dear relationship,
the start of something if you’re open to it
|
||||
5. |
Frequency
04:00
|
|||
|
In my dream we’re drinking at this bar downtown
And it’s our day off tomorrow so we’ll close it down
He is smiling and spinning a track on the decks
Simply for pleasure of snapping hipster necks
This is love this is language
Dunno how to speak yet
A frequency we frequent
on a wobbly radio dial
Way back before streaming
Some of us were dreaming
Of songs to come along
and make our faces smile
Too dark to train-spot sleeves from where I sit
And the apps only capture maybe two thirds of it
So we’re trapped in the banter nodding along
to decades-old decadent objects called songs
|
||||
6. |
Heroes On My Sleeve
04:39
|
|||
|
I don’t wear my heroes on my sleeve
Don’t have to telegraph what I believe
To be fair some of mine aren’t in books
Others survive by avoiding second looks
I see sunrise shine through ash and smoke
Don’t go out unless prepared to choke
To be watchful of my time and your space
Slip beneath surface tension without a trace
I change not what I can but what I must
Don’t make waves or kick up too much dust
To be here tomorrow requires luck and skills
As others kick tires on empires for sheer thrills
|
||||
7. |
Infinite Eagle
04:24
|
|||
|
I'm above you but that don't make me elite
I may look down on you but I still think you're sweet
Or maybe savory; from this height it's hard to tell
Don't call me nosy, I'm just following the smell
Infinite eagle picks at your liver
and wonders where you'll put the fire next time
I thought your name was promises, promises
But I was never famed for the acuity of my hearing
Only the avidity of my tastes and my digests
Of which you have first-hand experience you're fearing
|
||||
8. |
Lucille and Toni
03:53
|
|||
|
Lucille told Toni she still regularly talks
to her mom who died some years ago
Toni said is that so
and how do you make it happen
Lucille said by Ouija board
Lucille said her mother has no sense
of time hopes she’ll have kids she’s already raised
Wanders away in mid-conversation
and makes excuses about necessary errands
Toni said she found it delightful to contemplate
No heavenly choir trapped in endless praise
Life after the life we live, a clock to be ignored
and duties to make sure we won’t be bored
|
||||
9. |
Mistake
04:40
|
|||
|
There were still so many things
I didn't want to hear you say
It was easier not to ask you
We dreamed about how we could be together
without trying to be together, what a mistake that was
I loved you and I'm pretty sure you loved me
despite all evidence to the contrary
What did we know about love?
Everything we were told
What made us think that way, be so bold?
|
||||
10. |
Murder Along
03:32
|
|||
|
Once we were soldiers
Then we were warriors
Then we gave up our lives
And researchers picked up their knives
We knew love and fear
but in time those tortures pass
verses to a once-known song
You brought us back here
when we should be under grass
and when we no longer belong
you make us murder along
We travelled like locusts
Content to pass days on dunes
Then we paid for pleasures
Retribution exacted far beyond measures
Our brains flare with killing
Our private torment is colossal
Corpses in the slaughterhouse
Fleshes aflame without water to douse
Caged in a castle our hands curling around bars
We cry out for freedom we remember who we are
|
||||
11. |
My Companion
03:26
|
|||
|
She was tall and strong and wild
Eyes as soft as a suburban child
Giving my companion that look, that lip
Singing the Doors’ “The Crystal Ship”
She was wearing leather regal and ripe
Superpositioning multiple archetypes
To hear her sing, you’d have to admire it
Rather than raise a fuss or lose your shit
And I lucked out when it turned out
My companion didn’t step out that night
And I lucked out out as it turned out
But I still wonder if she was right
My girlfriend was never one to tie
Both hands behind her back at an eye
Loyal in love and dextrous with desire
Open to overtures fervent with fire
|
||||
12. |
My Heart Won't Let Me
04:00
|
|||
|
I'm tired but I can't sleep
I'm hungry but I can't eat
Time's moving at a crawl
and the pain in me runs
while the hunger grows
I don't want to give my heart again
but my heart won't let me keep it in
So I let love out and let if flow
and if it sticks then I'll know
but won't forget it can all go south
and then I'll be standing at the beginning again
I wait and wait for love to show
but my heart won't let me be
it runs and runs and looks for love
and while I wait the hunger grows
I don't want to give my heart again
but my heart won't let me keep it in
I'll burn my palms and change the hands of fate
|
||||
13. |
Porcelain Jaw
04:08
|
|||
|
To be sure, no one remembers you
and your porcelain jaw
Once in a while you remember
to take it down from the shelf and dust it off
It’s a memento of your pugilistic career,
your pugilistic career such as it was
And would it have been
a shame to have it broken?
You won often enough
you could have paid to have it repaired
But no, you never had the courage
to lead with it, your porcelain jaw
|
||||
14. |
Right Time Wrong Address
03:10
|
|||
|
You lean and you stretch away from another mess
Another failed attempt to foster communication
Wreckage slightly smoking not so much modern art
as an ill-fated merger in a designer’s graph or chart
It wasn’t going to happen how you hoped but still
You showed up for success: a moot meet-cute with defeat
It wasn’t going to happen for all your focus and will
You showed up for success
Right time, wrong address
I keep thinking I’m done, maybe I’ve seen enough
I keep thinking you’ve won, defeating you will be too tough
But I keep thinking past you to a future when you’ll be gone
And I think good old past me outliving you’d be so much fun
|
||||
15. |
Sirens
02:19
|
|||
|
It's a city and its sirens, me and my silence
Broken by the breath in each lung
Waiting to learn whether somebody does
or does not get to be young
It's a change in the wind,
its chill and direction and gust
since the vapor it carries rarely tarries
unless it violates the local trust
|
||||
16. |
Suited And Booted
05:20
|
|||
|
Here you are, suited and booted
All dressed for an occasion to be named
You walk in the door and you shoot your cuffs
You were ready to be credited or blamed
It's fashion, it's the fashion
The man makes the clothes, but do the clothes make the man?
You see outfits on the outside and the inside
You pay attention long as your fear overwhelms your pride
And here you are with bodies all around
We're born naked and everything else is well drag
We try to develop taste, fit into a space,
find a place where we fit in and sometimes we succeed
|
||||
17. |
The Quitter
04:34
|
|||
|
You said I quit and I said no problem
let's take this to human relations
You said I’m not giving you two weeks notice
I said that will mean arbitration
Was it the benefits, bonus or salary?
maybe we can boost compensation
You said it’s nothing to do with all that
It’s a more fundamental frustration
You said this is not what I want
There must be more than this office we haunt
Sheet that we wear with holes cut out for eyes
Chains that we rattle in hopes of surprise
To scare other people, to awe and to shock
I’ve tried it a while, but I think it’s a crock
So give me my severance I’m dropping this mike
Time to see what the free in freelance feels like
You want to hold my hand but I’d rather fold my hand
I said you’ve not found new employment
decided you’d rather be your own boss
I caution it’s not all that business school says
plus your contract’s got a non-compete clause
You said you hoped it would not come to this
That nobody’s reputation would be destroyed
But our pact was broken by last year’s liaison
That overseas overture left us null and void
|
||||
18. |
You Were Made For This
05:22
|
|||
|
You feel your fear, dig into your dream
You know it's real, no matter how false it may seem
You feel your fear, you know the clock is ticking
Dig into your dream, rise up despite your sinking
You know you're going to have to work to make something matter
You know you're going to have to fuss and make a mess about it
You know the opposition's high and you will have to sigh
You know put them on their backs and redouble your attack
And you were made for this
|
||||
19. |
Your Perfume
05:46
|
|||
|
I could tell I liked how you handled yourself
before you ever felt the warmth of my skin
I could tell you would be bad for my health
before you ever showed me that silly grin
I could tell we’d make a mess of this thing
before our calendar even made it to spring
I was cold to your promises hot for your deeds
We never got done beginning before our doom
Neither of us had what the other one needs
It wasn’t my cologne it wasn’t your perfume
You love spring training but it bores me to tears
Sign of seasonal renewal a game with no clock
If I wanted to do nothing for three lonely hours
At least you could undo these handcuffs' lock
When you slowly starve love of anticipation
Why be surprised if it succumbs from shock?
|
||||
Saint and Kings San Pablo, California
I’m a singer-songwriter using guitars and keyboards to craft distinctive dispatches from intimate interiors, vast exteriors and all points in between. Drawing on years of pop, soul, indie, folk and dance-music fandom, I try to turn observations and narratives into succinct sonic snapshots. ... more
If you like Saint and Kings, you may also like:
That Bridge Washed Away In The Storm (EP)
by Lowpines
Avi Buffalo had a hand in producing this cassette of Lowpines' serene, self-described "Lo-fi-Anglo-Americana pop songs."
go to album
The Convincer (20th Anniversary Edition)
by Nick Lowe
Released in 2001, “The Convincer” is a gentle gem in the Nick Lowe catalog; an anniversary edition provides opportunity for rediscovery.
go to album
The Woman You Want
by Eliza Shaddad
Haddad returns with cinematic soundscapes that include introspective folk, post-grunge, and indie-pop influences.
go to album
This project from the Spanish indie-pop singer explores nostalgia and joy.
go to album
Sweet Tooth (Extended Version)
by Kaycie Satterfield
Can’t-miss, sunshine-y vocal melodies glide through warm guitar pop for a surge of summer in the midst of winter.
go to album
The Dizzying Parade
by Good Good Blood
The British lo-fi artist's latest album includes additional vocals by his family.
go to album
Keep My Powder Dry / When It All Wakes Up
by Good Good Blood
From UK group Good Good Blood, a pair of tracks that surround hypnotic repeating phrases with barren, folky guitar.
go to album
